This Japanese vending machine is a virtual girl who sends you text messages

If you have ever visited Japan, you will know that there’s a vending machine on nearly every street. You may recall that we previously wrote about a futuristic vending machine which uses facial recognition technology to recommend suitable drinks to whoever is standing in front of it. And now just recently we found another interesting use of vending machines from a well known company.

Georgia, is a popular canned coffee brand produced by Coca-Cola Japan. Canned coffee has always been a popular and affordable beverage among Japanese salary men long before Starbucks arrived on the scene. Even now many of them will opt for vending machine coffee instead of neighborhood stores or cafes. With this specific demographic in mind, Georgia came up with a clever promotion that involves vending machines and mobile phones.

Their idea is to turn a relatively boring vending machine into a more neighborly store, doing so in an effort to prompt more purchases. Here’s how it works.

You can download an app to your smartphone, and choose one female manager from a list. By reading the QR code posted on your most frequented vending machine, the app registers that machine as your favorite.

The female manager will send you friendly texts whenever you’re nearby and you can then communicate back and forth with her.

This experience turns otherwise ordinary vending machines into more of a store-like destination that keeps you coming back. The Georgia app is available on both iOS and Android platforms.

You can check out the promotion video below to see how the app can bring some enjoyment to a working man’s life.

Yukari is a tech writer based in Tokyo, with previous experience working with a few startups in Japan. She also supervised the Japanese caption and narration of the movie “Social Network”. She aspires to contribute to Japanese startup scene by what she does best: writing. Find her on Twitter, at @yukari77.